The Battle Of The Ghouls

Chapter Three

      I took Meadow's hand warily and she hoisted me upright.

I quickly grabbed my suitcase protectively and she laughed. "Oh, I'm not here to steal your belongings."She informed me.

I was probably giving her a strange confused expression, because she quickly added,"I'm just on patrol and stumbled upon your scent. I could sense you were new, and er... a bit lost,"

      I should have been weirded out, scared even, that she could smell me from wherever she was. But I wasn't.

      Though, if she knew I was here, what else that lurked in these woods did?

      "Patrol for what?" I asked, keeping my tone calm.

      "There are strange creatures who live in this forest." She said,"But the ones who we have been having the most trouble with lately are the ghouls."

      Ghouls. That sounded familiar, maybe an old bedtime story my mother used to tell me when I was little. "Ghouls?" I echoed.

      She nodded,"Very vicious, not stealthy though. You can hear their uneven feet from a mile away, especially with those ears of yours." She gestured to my pointed ears.

      "My ears?" My hand quickly clasped around them,"...They've never been useful for anything except trouble,"

      Meadow laughed again,"You'll see, they will come in handy. Trust me,"

      I opened my mouth to say another remark, but she cut me off by holding up a hand. "What?--" she brought her hand down to her hood and pulled it off.

The first thing I saw were her ears. They were exactly like mine.

They pricked up and twitched. I could tell she was hearing something that I wasn't, so I stayed quiet.

"Quickly," She suddenly took my hand and bounded into the woods, leaving my suitcase behind.

"What is it?" I yelled at her. My feet were stumbling over the small rocks and roots that I had no way of seeing by how fast we were running.

"Ghouls." She told me,"Eight of them."

"What? How do you know?" I narrowly ducked under an oncoming low branch.

"There are things I cannot explain right now, Ilya." She moved gracefully through the undergrowth, dodging everything.

"How do you know my name?" I stumbled over a rock, slowing us down. Meadow stopped only for a second to help me up before taking off again.

"Suitcase," She called behind her shoulder,"Now hurry up, we're almost there."

"Where?" I demanded. She gave me no answer. Probably a good thing, I thought, it would just cause more questions.

Up ahead, I saw a figure of a person, maybe a boy. As we neared, I noticed that he was also wearing a cloak, this one a dark purple.

Meadow slowed down once we could make out the features on the boy's face.

He had dark eyes, and dark hair as much as I could tell from underneath his cloak. His smile was nonexistent, and he held the iron sword in his hand like he was ready to slaughter anything that stepped in his path.

      "Meadow," He nodded, barely regarding me.

      "Javan," She replied evenly.

     "Who's this?" He pointed to me with his sword. Though he acted like he didn't know who I was, I could sense he did.

      "A newcomer. Ilya, this is Javan. Javan, this is Ilya." Meadow briefly introduced us.

      "Nice to meet you," I nodded my head.

      His blank eyes looked me over, sizing me up. We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. I saw a spark of challenge in his eyes. He seemed to be saying, I dare you, take your best shot.

      I broke the stare quickly, just a few moments and I didn't like this guy.

      "You as well," he said through bored eyes.

      Meadow smiled, satisfied with our greeting. "Come, Ilya. I'll show you around camp,"

      "What camp? We're in the middle of the woods," I snapped at her, I was having enough of this.

      Meadow shook her head, her smile still there,"We're almost there. Just walk forward a few yards," She told me.

Frowning, I stepped past Javan. He was still glaring at me for some unknown reason when I walked through the invisible wall into the camp.

My stomach flipped inside out when I saw the camp for the first time.

There were eight wooden cabins, all of them in a horseshoe formation with a ever flowing fountain in the middle.

To the right of the cabins, was a small lake, where other campers were playing different sports in the smooth sand.

To the left, there was another larger cabin that I can only assume was a counselor's cabin.

The laughter of the campers by the lake had me staring at the shinning water. The sunlight was reflecting off the small waves and I realized that the sun wasn't blocked by any trees.

The trees, in fact, where no where to be seen. No sign of the overgrown woods was there, no more darkness in this camp. Just light.

I turned around just in time to see Meadow walk through the wall.

It had looked as if the woods went on forever behind where Javan was standing, but it was just an illusion. From inside, the wall was a sky blue.

No sign of the dark forest.

"How is it?" Meadow asked. The sunlight reflected off of her braided hair like on the lake, and I realized she reminded me of the water.

Her movements were graceful and quick, but her smile and laughter as bubbly as a creek.

"What is this place?" I ignored her question, awed by the wall.

She simply smiled and said, "Welcome to Camp Kalopsia,"